Influence of Diode Laser Intensity Modulation on Photoacoustic Image Quality for Oral Soft Tissue Imaging

TL;DR

This study investigates how modulating the intensity of a diode laser affects the quality of photoacoustic images of oral soft tissues, aiming to optimize imaging techniques for medical diagnostics.

Contribution

It introduces a method to optimize diode laser intensity modulation for improved photoacoustic imaging of oral soft tissues.

Findings

Optimal duty cycle identified for best image quality

Laser modulation improves soft tissue imaging contrast

Enhanced image resolution with specific laser settings

Abstract

Imaging technologies have been developed to assist physicians and dentist in the detection of various diseases. Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is a new imaging technique that shows great promise to image soft tissues. The prototype of PAI system in this study utilized a non-ionizing 532nm continue-wave diode laser illumination to image oral soft tissue. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of diode laser intensity modulation to the Photoacoustic image quality. Samples in this study were oral soft tissues from six Sprague Dawley rats imaged by using the PAI system. To determine the optimum duty cycle of laser intensity modulation, the laser exposure for oral soft tissue imaging was set in various duty cycles.